Though thousands of effective biopharmaceuticals exist for a wide array of medical/clinical indications, adherence to drug administration remains a severe problem in fully treating these diseases. Given the difficulties in taking a medication every day, or numerous times throughout the day, and the complexities in properly delivering a drug into the body, a small implantable device would be a convenient solution for a large number of patient populations. Such an implantable device would safely allow for the controlled release of a substance into the body, and this drug delivery platform could be used universally for a variety of conditions.
An important limitation in many existing drug delivery implants is that their drug release profiles are not well-controlled. Though it may be required in certain cases, most drug release profiles in an implantable device are undesirable as the drug concentration decreases as a function of time as the drug runs out. The present invention overcomes these limitations and furthermore provides many other added benefits such as targeted delivery of the drug to a target (e.g., tissue or organ) in the body.